The weird thing about this story isn't that Ken Levine wants to make smaller games with a tighter team. That's actually pretty normal. Lot's of big game designers have gone that way in the past (Sid Meier, Cliff Bleszinski, etc.).

The absolutely fucking bizarre thing about this story is that he apparently feels the need to shut down the entire studio and fire everyone who worked there to do this. Bioshock Infinite was not made by Ken Levine alone. There are (or rather, were...) a ton of very talented people working there. And as thanks for making one of the most successful games of last year they're all getting the pink slip just because Ken Levine wants to do something else...

I completely agree, I'd rather not have a games industry where as long as your name has enough recognition you can get away with the most heinous acts and still PR your way to looking like the good guy.

So a couple days ago Gematsu did this story where they reported on the "most wanted" games from a particular Famitsu issue. This is something Famitsu compiles from reader submissions every week, though there is naturally a big selection bias there (since only the most hardcore fans who are also Famitsu fans are going to bother to write in about it) and it shouldn't really be taken seriously. And the Gematsu story makes it pretty clear that they reported on it on a whim.

Since then I've seen this story picked by all manner of other news sites but filtered down the blogosphere like a game of telephone, losing all context and turning into headlines like "Japan's 30 Most Anticipated Games". But if you actually follow the source links they all come back to (eventually...) that Gematsu story about a stupid Famitsu poll that nobody really takes seriously. But since Gematsu isn't reporting on the Famitsu results every week (even though Famitsu is doing them weekly) it makes this weeks results seem a whole like weightier than they should.

Amen to that. Not this site, I have yet to see any non-news articles on RPGFan, but all the major sites are terrible, most of their news articles are along the lines of "Game Developer Says Their Game Will be Good."